Traditional Designs: Stabbed Animals

[polliwog]

And/or fire.

I've been seriously thinking about getting a Chad Koeplinger flash illustration of an owl with a flaming head. I saw it while I was getting tattooed in Ohio and immediately wanted it tattooed on me but felt conflicted because, well, it's an owl. But it's an owl with fire...

[gougetheeyes]

@polliwog the owls are not what they seem. So do it!

[RoryQ]

If it's an occult / Twin Peaks owl then normal rules of thumb do not apply.

[Rikhall]

I've got a pharoes horses with a dagger through, it's cool but I really feel like I need to put a dagger through something else, almost got a dagger through a kewpie before might pull that one out. People will think it's about abortion but I just think it'd look rad

[gougetheeyes]

People will think it's about abortion but I just think it'd look rad

Who will think it's about abortion?! Interesting twist though -- are you stabbing the kewpie in support of abortion or in opposition to it?

In other news, it's almost time for my third annual kewpie tattoo..

[Rikhall]

Who will think it's about abortion?! Interesting twist though -- are you stabbing the kewpie in support of abortion or in opposition to it?

In other news, it's almost time for my third annual kewpie tattoo..

Just people take the wrong ideas from tattoos haha, for me it'd be because I love kewpies and daggers, cool what you getting?

[slayer9019]

I got a dagger through a skull and a snake because, really unless I added a panther how much better can that get?

[gougetheeyes]

@slayer9019 oh right, we all have tattoos, good call. Desa panther from four years ago (time fliiiies) and J. Pov wolf head from maybe 2011.

[Nate Pea]

I got a dagger through a skull and a snake because, really unless I added a panther how much better can that get?

fucking love that tattoo

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thinking about the first modern recorded tattoo's would all be polynesian. those tattoos were supposed to convey power. powerful images are awesome. what could be more poweful than somethings head run through

[Faolan]

It's how we used to kill panthers and gorillas.. before the internet RUINED TATTOOING.

it's a manly symbol from back when real men got tattoos, and today real men still get them because we're manly enough to get a tattoo we like and not care if other people are ruining its meaning. By men i of course mean women too, because it's a damn fine woman who can stand by that tattoo.

[Faolan]

I have a question to add on this too, thinking of getting one myself actually, so does anyone know if the direction of the dagger matters? I've seen one with the dagger pointed up with the tip sticking through its skull, or stabbed down through the top the skull and the tip through their jaw, and wondered if maybe there was a deeper meaning to it than just how it looked. I guess you can't sneak up on the animal if you're stabbing upwards, so to face it head on shows "bravery and honor". thanks!

[MadeIndelible]

@Faolan I think, if anything, it would be like the rule that tattoos are placed so the viewer sees them best. For example, faces are placed so that the tattoo is looking forward on the arms, or inward on the chest.

[William Burgess]

I always thought the panther/tiger/leopard head gettin' stabbed was a symbolic reference to mans intellect(the dagger) cutting through his more base, animal instincts. Intellect vs. instinct is what I have always thought.

[Colored Guy]

I want to see a dagger with a dagger thru it...

[mtthrmn]

"What's the toughest thing I could possibly get, so everyone can see how nails I am?"

"I know, A Panther"

"Wait, with a fucking dagger through it"

Haha, my conversation with my girlfriend before getting my panther was almost verbatim.

Tattoo (and photo) by Erik Gillespie, done at Great Lakes Tattoo

[jimstanley]

Cuz I kill stuff, meng. I imagine getting the dagger going down is crazy, cuz you had to drive that thing through a skull and brains and stuff, and thats baller, but that's too much thought. Realistically its just the combination of aesthetics. I want a dagger, and I want an animal head, lets do both. And it looks cool.

@William Burgess It could also be a nature thing. Either our domination as top predator, and ownership of all the prey/resources, or our "domination over" nature in general.

[Medusa]

Quick question, I've always wondered about this... why is that in a lot of traditional tattoo designs, animals, animal heads and so one are getting stabbed? Like the often seen Panther-with-a-dagger-through-the-head. I get it if you really hate a certain kind of animal or have some other more or less valid reason for it (I've played with the thought of a tattoo with a spider punctured by a dagger because I'm afraid of them (yet don't kill them in real life since I value their insect killing existence)). But other than that? Is there a reason, a story behind those designs?

Just wonderin' not judging ;)

I know this is an old thread, but I couldn't help but to post a reply. On a deeper and more thoughtful level, the dagger through the head of an animal represents the slaying of the "beast" within, or a conquering over man's bestial nature.

[TattooedMumma]

it is a sexual thing. the dagger symbolizes a penis.

Holy shit a future tatto I am getting for my father just screams daddy issues in that case ?